Gaming Performance Comparison

Recommended System Requirements

Game

Threadripper 2920X 12-Core 3.5GHz

Ryzen R7 1700X

In terms of overall gaming performance, the AMD Threadripper 2920X 12-Core 3.5GHz is massively better than the AMD Ryzen R7 1700X when it comes to running the latest games. This also means it will be less likely to bottleneck more powerful GPUs, allowing them to achieve more of their gaming performance potential.

The Threadripper 2920X 12-Core was released over a year more recently than the Ryzen R7 1700X, and so the Threadripper 2920X 12-Core is likely to have better levels of support, and will be more optimized for running the latest games.

Both CPUs exhibit very powerful performance, so it probably isn't worth upgrading from one to the other, as both are capable of running even the most demanding games at the highest settings (assuming they are accompanied by equivalently powerful GPUs).

The Threadripper 2920X 12-Core has 4 more cores than the Ryzen R7 1700X. 12 cores is probably excessive if you mean to just run the latest games, as games are not yet able to harness this many cores. The cores in the Ryzen R7 1700X is more than enough for gaming purposes. However, if you intend on running a server with the Threadripper 2920X 12-Core, it would seem to be a decent choice.

The Threadripper 2920X 12-Core has 8 more threads than the Ryzen R7 1700X. Both the Threadripper 2920X 12-Core and the Ryzen R7 1700X use hyperthreading. The Threadripper 2920X 12-Core has 2 logical threads per physical core and the Ryzen R7 1700X has 2.

Multiple threads are useful for improving the performance of multi-threaded applications. Additional cores and their accompanying thread will always be beneficial for multi-threaded applications. Hyperthreading will be beneficial for applications optimized for it, but it may slow others down. For games, the number of threads is largely irrelevant, as long as you have at least 2 cores (preferably 4), and hyperthreading can sometimes even hit performance.

More important for gaming than the number of cores and threads is the clock rate. Problematically, unless the two CPUs are from the same family, this can only serve as a general guide and nothing like an exact comparison, because the clock cycles per instruction (CPI) will vary so much.

The Threadripper 2920X 12-Core and Ryzen R7 1700X are not from the same family of CPUs, so their clock speeds are by no means directly comparable. Bear in mind, then, that while the Threadripper 2920X 12-Core has a 0.1 GHz faster frequency, this is not always an indicator that it will be superior in performance, despite frequency being crucial when trying to avoid GPU bottlenecking. As such, we need to look elsewhere for more reliable comparisons.

Aside from the clock rate, the next-most important CPU features for PC game performance are L2 and L3 cache size. Faster than RAM, the more cache available, the more data that can be stored for lightning-fast retrieval. L1 Cache is not usually an issue anymore for gaming, with most high-end CPUs eking out about the same L1 performance, and L2 is more important than L3 - but L3 is still important if you want to reach the highest levels of performance. Bear in mind that although it is better to have a larger cache, the larger it is, the higher the latency, so a balance has to be struck.

The Threadripper 2920X 12-Core has a 2048 KB bigger L2 cache than the Ryzen R7 1700X, which means that it, at worst, wins out in this area, and at best, will provide superior gaming performance and will work much better with high-end graphics cards.

The maximum Thermal Design Power is the power in Watts that the CPU will consume in the worst case scenario. The lithography is the semiconductor manufacturing technology being used to create the CPU - the smaller this is, the more transistors that can be fit into the CPU, and the closer the connections. For both the lithography and the TDP, it is the lower the better, because a lower number means a lower amount of power is necessary to run the CPU, and consequently a lower amount of heat is produced.

The Ryzen R7 1700X has a 85 Watt lower Maximum TDP than the Threadripper 2920X 12-Core. However, the Threadripper 2920X 12-Core was created with a 2 nm smaller manufacturing technology. Overall, by taking both into account, the Ryzen R7 1700X is likely the CPU with the lower heat production and power requirements, by quite a wide margin.

CPU Graphics

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Gaming Performance Value

Performance Value

CPU Mini Review

Mini Review

The AMD Threadripper 2920X 12-Core 3.5GHz is a very high-end CPU based on AMD's 12nm Zen+ microarchitecture. It offers 12 physical cores (24 logical), initially clocked at 3.5Hz, which may go up to 4.3GHz using Turbo Boost.
It has an unlocked multiplier, therefore it can be overclocked using traditional methods.
It has 32MB of L3 Cache. Level 3 cache is a static memory bank of a processor and it is used to feed it instructions. This processor also supports DDR4 based RAMs with maximum memory support of 1TB.
It has a maximum Thermal Power Design of 180W. It is on par with competitor processors.
Among its many features, Enmotus FuzeDrive for AMD Ryzen, AMD SenseMI Technology, AMD Ryzen VR-Ready Premium, Virtualization, AES, AVX2, FMA4, XFR (Extended Frequency Range)
It doesn't feature an integrated GPU.
The Threadripper 2920X 12-Core 3.5GHz's high core count and high clock speed make it a great but expensive option for gamers. It will run AAA games very well. While a high clock speed is a priority for gaming, 12 cores is excessive for most gaming applications

The AMD Ryzen R7 1700X 8-Core 3.4GHz is a high-end CPU based on the 14nm Zen micro architecture.
It offers 8 physical cores (16 threads), initially clocked at 3.4GHz base clock and 3.8GHz boost with an unlocked multiplier for overclocking, and 16MB of L3 Cache.
Among its many features are Simultaneous Multithreading, Cool n Quiet, CoolCore Technology, Extended Frequency Range (XFX), Pure Power and Precision Boost.
This CPU is likely to offer exceptional computational performance and will not be the bottleneck in any modern gaming PC. It will be able to play all modern games comfortably on high/ultra graphics performance without being a hindrance to the accompanying GPU.